The present invention relates to a rigid wrapper with a hinged lid for tobacco products.
Concerning tobacco products, explicit reference is made throughout the specification to articles such as cigarettes, cigars and the like, albeit with no limitation in scope implied.
In general, a cigarette packet of the rigid type with a hinged lid appears substantially as a box like wrapper of rectangular parallelepiped shape, proportioned to accommodate an ordered group of cigarettes enveloped by an inner wrapper normally of metal foil paper.
The rigid wrapper comprises a container of cupped embodiment surmounted by a similarly cupped lid hingedly attached to a rear edge of the container and rotatable thus between positions in which the container is open and shut, respectively. The rigid wrapper will normally present a top face, a bottom face, a rear face appearing as a continuous panel divided into two parts by a transverse hinge crease along which the lid is connected to the container, also a front face composed of two separate portions coinciding respectively with the front face of the container and the front face of the lid, and two flank faces each composed of two separate portions coinciding respectively with a flank face of the container and a flank face of the lid.
The container and the lid are fashioned typically by bending a single flat diecut blank of paperboard or similar material to the requisite shape.
Rigid wrappers of the type mentioned are provided usually with a reinforcing frame also of paperboard or similar material, part of which is positioned inside the container and disposed in contact with the relative front face and flank faces.
The portion of the frame that projects from the container functions as a supporting and restraining element for the lid when in the closed position.
It is conventional practice to manufacture rigid wrappers of the type described above on packaging machines by which the cigarettes are ordered first into groups, whereupon the groups are directed onto a first section of a packaging line and enveloped each in the relative wrapper of metal foil paper.
Thereafter, the groups of cigarettes advance to a station at which the frames are applied. As each group passes into the station, a respective frame bent to assume a `U` profile is associated with the metal foil paper wrapper and the resulting assembly then advances together with a relative blank onto a second section of the packaging line, along which the blank is folded around the assembly to fashion the container and hinged lid of the rigid wrapper and thus complete the packet of cigarettes.
It will be gathered from the above outline that the conventional packaging machines in question normally comprise two conveying lines synchronized one with the other, one for the blanks, the other for the frames.
In order to simplify the structure of packaging machines as described above, and in particular to allow of dispensing with the frame conveying line, prior art methods embrace the use of flat diecut blanks with a frame already incorporated, obtained by shaping and punching respective longitudinal sheets cut from a continuous strip of paperboard or similar material.
In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 5,358,105 teaches the use of a diecut blank illustrated for convenience in FIG. 1, of which a central panel A, corresponding to the front face of the rigid wrapper ultimately obtained, is connected longitudinally at one end B to a frame denoted C; more exactly, the end B in question coincides with a bottom front corner edge of the erected wrapper and is joined to the frame C by way of an intermediate panel D. The frame C is composed of a longitudinally disposed end panel E of the blank, and two wings F projecting on either side of the panel E in a Tee formation. In a blank of this design, the intermediate panel D is bent double along a median transverse crease line G to provide a bottom end fold, and the longitudinal end panel E flattened against and fixed to the inside surface of the central panel A.
The blank described above and indicated in FIG. 1 is somewhat costly in that it involves cutting a relatively long sheet from the continuous strip of paperboard.
The object of the present invention is to provide a rigid wrapper with a hinged lid fashioned from a flat diecut blank with integral frame, shaped and punched in such a manner as to be obtainable from a relatively short length of strip material and thus relatively economical.